Jeremy has followed up his monumental NPR post on the effects of high quinoa prices on Andean growers ((Spoiler alert: They’re not bad, on either livelihoods or nutrition, though it’s not all sweetness and light. And as for the consumer…)), and his subsequent handy round-up right here, with a podcast over at Eat this Podcast. All the key players are duly interviewed, and it’s refreshing to hear the likes of Marc Bellemare, for example, in the flesh, as it were, rather than via tweets. One thing that hasn’t featured much in the discussion of the recent rise in prices is whether it has translated in greater interest in — and resources for — breeding the stuff. Which is not to say there isn’t a certain amount of quinoa breeding already going on. Maybe some of it is even of the gender-sensitive kind, examples of which are, incidentally, being sought by our friends at CGIAR. But more would probably be good. Oh, and conservation of the existing landraces too, of course.
Nibbles: Vavilov double, Huge avocado, African urban ag, Agarwood threat, Double coffee, Sequencing beer, Sloane ranges, Chinese bees, Gendered breeding, Access to seeds/meds, Genebank funding, Quinoa prices, Organic ganja
- VIR on Atlas Obscura, with pic goodness courtesy of yours truly. And on the same site, something Vavilov would have approved of: a very diverse Tajik apple orchard.
- A new avocado to conjure by.
- Urban agriculture won’t cut the mustard.
- Trees that named Fragrant Harbour disappearing.
- The downside of coffee. But never fear, there’s a strategy coming!
- The beernome!
- Happy birthday Sir Hans Sloane, for many botanical reasons!
- Chinese pollinators in trouble. Enough of the exclamation marks.
- Do you have any examples of “plant or animal breeding that has successfully incorporated gender considerations into its strategies and end products”? Contact these people.
- Can seeds learn from meds, policy-wise?
- Bioversity DG lobbies for genebanks.
- Get your fill of quinoa, courtesy of Jeremy.
- Sustainable pot. ‘Cause that’s the California Way, man.
Brainfood: Bean drought, Tree ranges, Lao rice landrace, Japanese wheat core, Japanese rice quality, Brassica diversity, Prosopis variety, Teff diversity, Agroecosystem diversity & resilience, Grassland spp adaptation
- Physiological traits associated with drought resistance in Andean and Mesoamerican genotypes of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). Maybe more common in the Mesoamerican genepool, and associated with pod harvest index.
- Estimating potential range and hence climatic adaptability in selected tree species. It’s better if you have trial results.
- Genetic diversity and population structure of ‘Khao Kai Noi’, a Lao rice (Oryza sativa L.) landrace, revealed by microsatellite DNA markers. More variation between than within accessions of same landrace, three genetic groups, and a possible origin in Vietnam.
- Characterization of a mini core collection of Japanese wheat varieties using single-nucleotide polymorphisms generated by genotyping-by-sequencing. Core collection of 96 accessions based on passport and pedigree data turns out to reflect geography and breeding history.
- Variation in cooking and eating quality traits in Japanese rice germplasm accessions. Mainly down to one gene.
- Population genomic analysis reveals differential evolutionary histories and patterns of diversity across subgenomes and subpopulations of Brassica napus L. Spring (SP), winter Europe (WE), and winter Asia (WA) groups, enriched genetic diversity within the WA group, different geographic origins for the C (WE) and A (WA) subgenomes.
- Molecular markers to distinguish ‘Thar Shoba’, a variety of khejri [Prosopis cineraria (L.) Druce], from trees in natural populations. Since the thing has a great morphological marker in being spineless, I don’t really see the point of going all molecular on it, but anyway.
- Assessment of the genetic relationship of tef (Eragrostis tef) genotypes using SSR markers. Molecular markers confirm distinctness of agronomically distinct varieties.
- Linkage between crop diversity and agro-ecosystem resilience: Nonmonotonic agricultural response under alternate regimes. Crop diversity increases productivity during normal conditions, decreases it in adverse conditions, increases the likelihood of staving off an adverse regime.
- Genetic differentiation and regional adaptation among seed origins used for grassland restoration: lessons from a multispecies transplant experiment. Local is best. At least in Germany.
Plant Breeding Matters!
Thanks to Mike Ambrose of the John Innes Centre for pointing us in the direction of a new series of videos from the British Society of Plant Breeders (BSPB) with the above title. He — and his genebank — feature in this first one…
…and no doubt also in some of the others.
LATER: And if you still harboured doubts… Cheers!
Nibbles: Sapote taste, Coffee breeding, Genes to ecosystems, Medicinal trifecta, Ganja, Aboriginal fire, Lupins, Endophytes, Oil algae, Schultes maps, Yeast diversity, Bees & diversity, CSA
- You know you want to try black sapote.
- Podcast on how to save coffee. And it probably needs it.
- Once we’ve saved the cultivated species, maybe we should save it in the wild as well?
- If not, there are other species, other drugs, I guess. No, really.
- Indigenous fire management in Australia.
- Everything you need on lupins. You’re welcome.
- Is anyone collecting endophytes? Or microalgae for that matter?
- Marvellous interactive atlas of the botanical collecting of Richard Evans Schultes in the Amazon.
- Wine yeasts are way inbred. Which can’t be altogether good.
- Watermelons need flower diversity.
- One does feel for climate-stupid varieties.